I've been playing a lot of Crusader Kings II again and it's gotten me thinking about alternate Byzantine history. Again. Specifically on how Manuel I Komnenos' reign could diverge so that the empire would avoid the reign of Andronikos I and consequently the Angeloi dynasty.
Which of the following would produce the best, for lack of a better word, results?
1. Manuel has at least one son with his first wife, Bertha of Sulzbach, and either his daughter Anna survives or his campaign against the Normans is successful (successful enough to gain Apulia anyway).
2. After Bertha and Anna die as in OTL, Manuel legitimises one of his bastard children by Theodora Vatatzina, also named Alexios (I think he shows up in CKII as the Doux of Dalmatia) before he remarries.
3. Myriokephalon still happens and Manuel dies on schedule but Maria-Xene dies earlier and Alexios II's regency council is headed by someone else, like John Komnenos Vatatzes.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Komnenos_Vatatzes
I'm eager to try some of these out in CKII, particularly the last one after re-reading 'The Reign of Romulus Augustus'.